These two, a man and a woman, had a huge backpack on their backs. They were covered in dirt from head to toe, looking almost like mud figures that had just crawled out of the ground.

When the group came out of the tent, they spotted the pair at first glance. Lin Jue came out first and asked with some displeasure, “What are you two doing here?”

“We’re here traveling,” the man replied first, but his cowering, incredibly evasive gaze exposed his lie. The woman stood still, constantly peering out the door, seemingly terrified of something outside.

“Traveling?” Lin Jue said. “You came to a place this remote to travel?” She spoke very bluntly, “Either tell the truth, or get out right now.”

“I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you.” Hearing they would be kicked out, before the man could speak, the woman’s emotions broke down first. She cried, “Don’t make me leave, we came here to look for treasure—”

“Another two fools fooled into coming here,” Xu Jian said. “Even if there was treasure here, would you two be able to find it?”

The man glared at the woman and showed a flattering expression to the group, saying that they indeed hadn’t found anything and had even run into some weird things.

Listening to the man’s words, Zhou Jiayu directly raised a question: “What’s in your bag?”

Hearing this, the man’s expression stiffened for a moment. “Just some of my daily necessities…”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Since they’re daily necessities, there’s nothing shameful about them, right? Take them out and let’s have a look.”

“Why should I take them out?” Unexpectedly, upon hearing Zhou Jiayu’s request, the man instantly turned hostile. He said, “This is my own bag, what right do you have to look at it?”

“Then get out,” Lin Jue’s face turned cold.

“Why should I leave? Is this your home? Does it have your names written on it?” The man spoke stubbornly. “I’m staying right here. If you have the guts, you leave yourselves.”

Hearing this, Shen Yiqiong directly rolled up his sleeves, about to step forward, but was stopped by Zhou Jiayu.

Shen Yiqiong said, “Guan’er…” He thought Zhou Jiayu was being soft-hearted, but who knew that in the next moment, he saw Zhou Jiayu take Little Paper out of his pocket and directly say, “Little Paper, throw that man outside the door.”

Once Little Paper left the pocket, he instantly recovered his 1.2-meter height, rolled up his sleeves, and charged forward.

The man stared at Little Paper, dumbfounded, and screamed in terror: “Ghost—”

Little Paper rushed up to the man, knocked him down with one punch, and then grabbed his collar, ready to drag him out the door.

Realizing something was wrong, the woman started crying and pleading for the man. As for the man, he curled up into a ball like a shrimp due to intense pain.

Zhou Jiayu remained expressionless, while the others watched with smiling faces. No one had any intention of telling Little Paper to stop.

Finally, when he was dragged to the door, the man suffered a complete emotional breakdown. He clung to the ground, wailing loudly, saying he was wrong and begging the great immortals to spare his life.

Only then did Zhou Jiayu call Little Paper’s name and tell him to put the man down.

Little Paper put the man down and trotted back to Zhou Jiayu’s side, lifting his head to ask for praise. Zhou Jiayu crouched down, patted his head, and reached out to neatly tidy up his rolled-up sleeves.

After Zhou Jiayu straightened out Little Paper’s clothes, he stood up and looked at the couple again.

Facing Zhou Jiayu’s gaze this time, the two completely chickened out. Between sobs, the woman told the truth. She said they had indeed come over initially because they heard there was treasure here. However, upon arriving, they found nothing, so they randomly took some things, intending to take them back and sell them.

Subsequently, in the bag the woman was carrying, they discovered all sorts of random things. Among them was even the incense burner from the Meng family’s ancestral hall.

“You even dared to take this?” Xu Jian glared.

The two shrunk on the ground, heads bowed, shivering. They completely didn’t dare to speak.

“Forget it, let’s ignore them for now,” Zhou Jiayu said. “There seems to be something outside the door…”

“Outside?” Lin Jue was a bit puzzled; she hadn’t felt anything. “Is there something? Why don’t I feel it?”

Zhou Jiayu briefly described the scene he saw. From just now, that burning smell hadn’t disappeared; it kept lingering in his nasal cavity.

But looking at the people in the courtyard, they all looked a bit blank. Even Lin Zhushui didn’t seem to sense anything unusual outside.

“I indeed didn’t feel anything either,” Xu Jian said. “How about we open the door and take a look?”

Lin Jue said, “Let’s open the door and look.”

Thinking of the scene just now, Zhou Jiayu still felt lingering fear. Lin Zhushui seemed to perceive his wavering and reached out to hold his hand, squeezing it slightly.

Zhou Jiayu’s heart stirred, and he nodded: “Alright.”

Shen Yiqiong volunteered to open the door. He walked to the door, called out to Zhou Jiayu, and then pulled the door open again.

With a crisp creak, the front door was opened once more. Almost instantaneously, Zhou Jiayu felt a scorching heatwave hit his face. The heatwave’s temperature was extremely high, making him feel as though his face was being burned. Zhou Jiayu let out a low groan, involuntarily covering his cheeks with his hands, and stepped back a few paces.

“What’s wrong?” However, among the people present, it seemed only Zhou Jiayu was affected. The others looked at the completely empty space outside the door, staring blankly at each other.

“What were you scared of?” Lin Jue reacted extremely quickly, immediately turning to look at the two thieves who were still paralyzed on the ground with terrified faces.

“I don’t know,” the woman said. “We don’t know what it was either. It was black, kind of looking like a scorched person…”

Lin Zhushui frowned, turned around, and hugged Zhou Jiayu, touching his cheek with his hand: “Jiayu?”

Zhou Jiayu couldn’t speak. He felt terribly uncomfortable, feeling as if his soul was forcibly pulled out of his body by something, forced to float in mid-air.

And beneath his soul was an endless sea of fire.

Rocks melted by high temperatures turned into black monsters, slowly writhing on the earth as if to swallow everything.

The magma flowing out when a volcano erupts is black, with piercing red tumbling underneath. Black dust spewed out from the crater, overwhelming the sky and blotting out the sun.

Zhou Jiayu was incredibly hot, feeling as if his whole person was about to melt from the heat.

He vaguely saw that something seemed to be struggling in the magma. This scene was very unpleasant. When he saw clearly what was in the magma, this unpleasantness reached its peak.

They were charred people. They were already dead, yet they were still struggling in the magma. Pairs of pitch-black hands reached out from the boiling hot magma, as if to grab onto something.

This scene was too much like a scene from hell. Zhou Jiayu even felt like vomiting. The sound of children crying rang in his ears. This crying was sharp and ear-piercing, causing the scene before him to distort along with it.

“Zhou Jiayu—” Someone was calling his name.

Zhou Jiayu couldn’t move.

“Zhou Jiayu—” This voice grew louder and louder. Zhou Jiayu began to feel a pain on his body. This pain acted like a tie, forcibly pulling his soul back into his body.

“Zhou Jiayu.” Someone was gently kissing his forehead, bringing warmth to his icy body. Zhou Jiayu’s vision finally focused. He felt himself lying in Lin Zhushui’s embrace, his face buried in his chest.

“I saw it,” Zhou Jiayu said softly.

Lin Zhushui didn’t say anything. He slowly patted Zhou Jiayu’s back, soothing his emotions.

“I saw the Meng family,” Zhou Jiayu spoke with difficulty. “After being covered by the magma, they could still move. They reached out their hands in the magma, wanting to grab me over.”

“No one can grab you over,” Lin Zhushui comforted softly. “I’m here.”

Zhou Jiayu stayed quiet for a while longer before finally breaking free from that panic-inducing emotion. At this moment, the door was still open. A breeze carried that scorched, foul smell into Zhou Jiayu’s nasal cavity, but he was the only one who could smell this odor. Everyone else’s face showed worry for him.

“This child is too sensitive,” Lin Jue said. “He must have been forced to empathize again…”

Xu Jian didn’t utter a sound. His expression was very complicated, yet his eyes were fixed on the hands Lin Zhushui used to hold Zhou Jiayu. Obviously, he had discovered an unusual situation—no master would lower their head and kiss their disciple’s cheek while comforting them.

The wind in the mountains suddenly grew stronger, mixed with black dust, making the originally clear sky murky.

“What’s that sound?” Lin Jue suddenly frowned.

This time, these noises didn’t seem to be Zhou Jiayu’s illusion. Everyone heard a rustling sound, like something slowly dragging and moving on the ground.

“Living people?” Xu Jian also sensed something, an expression of disbelief appearing on his face. “How is that possible?”

In the darkness outside the door, shadows swarmed.

When everyone saw clearly what was in the shadows, Zhou Jiayu discovered that his nightmare from just now had actually become reality. Outside the house stood people with distorted figures. Their bodies were completely charred, taking on a charcoal-like form. Yet they could still move and were slowly approaching this place, seeming as though they wanted to surround the entire courtyard from the outside.

“What are these things—” Lin Jue was also full of astonishment. “Why do I feel the aura of living people from them?”

“They are living people.” As soon as Lin Zhushui said this, he confirmed the identities of these people. His brows were slightly furrowed, seemingly pondering some question.

Those charred humans… no, maintaining such a form, perhaps they could no longer be called human. They kept getting closer to the courtyard and would soon reach the doorway.

Zhou Jiayu suddenly smelled a pungent odor of urine. Turning his head, he realized that the man among the thieving couple had already wet his pants out of fear.

The three strongest people present all stated that those people outside the house who had been burned into black charcoal were living people. But if a person had turned into this state, how could they still be alive?

“Close the door first,” Lin Jue said. “Don’t let these things in.”

Shen Yiqiong, who was standing at the door, hurried to close it and rushed back into the crowd, his eyes full of terror: “How could living people look like this?”

This question lingered in everyone’s minds, but currently, no one could answer it.

As silence spread among the crowd, Zhou Jiayu suddenly noticed bean-sized raindrops beginning to fall from the sky. However, in the blink of an eye, the bean-sized raindrops turned into a torrential downpour, crashing loudly onto the ground.

The rain was simply too heavy. Although everyone reacted quickly, more than half of their bodies were still soaked. They were forced to enter the old house behind them, watching the curtain of rain seal off the world.

This rain came too suddenly. After entering the house, Zhou Jiayu saw the black dust on the ground being washed into a state of mud by the rain. But what he didn’t expect was that this rainwater didn’t wash away the dust on the buildings. That dust seemed to have turned into speckle-shaped things.

The group hid inside the house and looked towards the direction of the door, seemingly all wondering if the things outside would smash the door to get in.

Their worries clearly weren’t unfounded. A moment later, a thump thump thump knocking sound rang out on the already flimsy door panel.

Lin Zhushui suddenly spoke: “Take everything out of your bags.” He was speaking to the two thieves.

The two thieves didn’t dare to argue. They dejectedly put down their backpacks and took out the items inside one by one.

At first, Zhou Jiayu didn’t understand Lin Zhushui’s intention behind saying this, until the man took something out of his bag, causing him to show an expression of disbelief: “You even stole this?” He thought stealing the incense burner was outrageous enough, but he never expected this person to even pack a person’s memorial tablet into their bag in an attempt to take it away.

“I saw the wood quality was pretty good…” The man looked sheepish, mumbling as he spoke, stealing a fearful glance at Little Paper standing next to Zhou Jiayu.

Zhou Jiayu picked up the memorial tablet and saw the words ‘Meng Juntian’ written on it. “Who is this?”

“Isn’t Meng Juntian the third son of the Meng family? Why would his memorial tablet be here?” Xu Jian found it a bit strange. He took the memorial tablet and examined it carefully. “A person expelled from the Meng family can still enter the ancestral hall?”

Looking at Xu Jian’s reaction, Zhou Jiayu realized he didn’t seem to know about the existence of Meng Juntian’s son, Meng Yangtian.

“Throw the tablet out,” Lin Zhushui spoke again.

Following his instructions, Zhou Jiayu took the memorial tablet, braved the rain, walked to the side of the wall, and with a forceful throw, tossed the tablet directly over the wall.

Not long after the memorial tablet was thrown out, the knocking on the door stopped. Those black charred corpses outside seemed to have left.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Zhou Jiayu simply wanted to tell Little Paper to beat this thief up again. Stealing an incense burner was one thing, but not even sparing someone’s memorial tablet—no wonder they were chased so miserably.

However, although the charred corpses didn’t harass them anymore, the rain in the sky grew heavier and heavier, even taking on the momentum of a torrential downpour.

Lin Jue muttered that if she had known, she would have brought Xiao Jin along and had him smile; the weather would probably clear up then.

Zhou Jiayu thought to himself: Shibo (Martial Aunt), are you a scumbag? You weren’t saying this when you were scorning Xiao Jin a few days ago…

The rain grew heavier. Going out for just a moment would drench someone into a drowned rat. After half an hour, seeing that the rain still showed no signs of stopping, a worried look appeared on Xu Jian’s face.

“The momentum of this rain isn’t right,” Xu Jian said. “It’s spring right now; such heavy rain is really abnormal.”

Seeing his expression, Zhou Jiayu then recalled what Xu Jian had said before. You couldn’t come here in the summer because this place was entirely composed of mountains with no vegetation attached to them, and the terrain was quite steep. Once it rained, mudslides easily formed. Moreover, looking at the marks on the hillsides, mudslides seemed to be a common occurrence. It was just that the Meng family ruins had good luck and had managed to dodge them every time.

Lin Jue had also gotten wet. At this moment, she had a cigarette dangling from her mouth, sitting to the side and smoking slowly. Xu Ruwang also ran over to bum one, so the two people with the longest hair in the room were both puffing away.

“What do we do?” Zhou Jiayu asked. “Are we leaving in this heavy rain?”

Xu Jian checked his watch and said that in another half hour, if the rain still didn’t stop, they would have to leave here even if it meant braving the heavy downpour. Otherwise, if a mudslide really broke out, probably none of them would be able to escape. After all, in the face of nature’s power, humans are exceptionally insignificant.

Because he went out to throw the memorial tablet, Zhou Jiayu was soaked through. He was actually fine; changing clothes would do. However, Xu Ruwang’s untended long hair draped over his shoulders like straw. Paired with his not-at-all effeminate face, he looked like a total pervert.

The rain poured down, and visibility was only a few meters. When Zhou Jiayu went out just now, he found it very difficult to even open his eyes. If they were to leave soon, it probably wouldn’t be easy.

But their biggest worry still happened. After raining for over half an hour, it still showed no intention of stopping; it even grew heavier.

“We have no choice. Let’s go,” Xu Jian said. “We can’t wait any longer.”

Although climbing a mountain in this kind of weather was terrible, it was still better than waiting to die here.

After they went out, they found that those black charred corpses that had been surrounding them earlier were gone. The ground had been washed incredibly clean by the rain; not a trace of soil could be seen.

Zhou Jiayu suddenly felt it was very strange. If it rained heavily here every year, logically, that black dust should have been washed away long ago. But why could they still see it on the ground when they arrived? Didn’t that prove that such dust continued to fall onto the ground even after it rained?

The rain was too heavy, and the visibility was frighteningly low. Everyone had to walk while observing their surroundings, making progress extremely difficult. The worst part was that the backup rain gear completely failed to take effect in such heavy rain. Before long, Zhou Jiayu’s shoes filled with rainwater, and walking on the ground felt like stepping in water.

Fortunately, Xu Jian was quite familiar with the place and quickly found the way out. Looking at the mountain path that had become extremely muddy, Zhou Jiayu could only grit his teeth and climb up.

“Hurry up,” Lin Zhushui, who was initially bringing up the rear, suddenly urged.

Zhou Jiayu shouted: “Mister says everyone needs to climb faster—”

Hearing this, everyone gritted their teeth and put in extra effort.

The group braced themselves and climbed the mountain in the pouring rain. When they reached halfway up the mountain, they suddenly heard a loud boom. This loud noise was like thunder tearing the sky apart, making people dizzy. Through the blurred curtain of rain, Zhou Jiayu saw a black torrent on the steep opposite slope surging down from the mountain peak with crushing force, completely burying the Meng family ruins.

The group witnessed all this from halfway up the mountain. They watched helplessly as the small village that originally existed was covered by mud. Trees and massive boulders were mixed in the mud. One could imagine what would have happened to them if they had walked a little slower and were caught by this torrent.

It was Zhou Jiayu’s first time witnessing such a situation with his own eyes, and he was shocked for a moment.

In the face of nature, humans are like ants, completely powerless to resist major changes in heaven and earth. The mudslide followed the terrain, buried the Meng family ruins, and then went towards a lower place.

The group stood in the rain without speaking. The atmosphere seemed to freeze.

“Let’s go.” After an unknown amount of time, Lin Zhushui broke the silence.

Only then did everyone lift their feet to continue forward.

Not long after the mudslide appeared, the rain in the sky gradually lessened. When the sky cleared up, the morning sun also slowly emerged from below the horizon.

“The rain stopped.” Zhou Jiayu shook off the water drops on his body.

“Mn.” Lin Zhushui responded softly.

After a night of climbing, they had reached the mountain peak. Looking down at the mountain hollow from their high vantage point, their feelings were very complicated.

The Meng family ruins they had just left had completely disappeared before everyone’s eyes, leaving only a patch of building wreckage. That feng shui great family that once shook the world hadn’t even left its final traces behind.

“It’s completely gone.” Xu Jian’s tone also carried a hint of sighing.

“What about those black charred corpses? Were they buried inside too?” Lin Jue didn’t seem to think the matter ended here. Her expression was a bit complicated: “Don’t you guys think this rain was too strange? It’s almost as if…”

It was almost as if they were being chased away. In fact, Zhou Jiayu had the same thought, but when he thought about it logically, he felt it was impossible. Who could be powerful enough to manipulate the will of heaven?

“Let’s go, let’s tidy up first,” Zhou Jiayu said. “Don’t catch a cold.”

Everyone was dripping wet from head to toe. It wasn’t midsummer right now, so the temperature was still a bit low. He had already begun to feel a bit chilly.

However, the terrible thing was that the rain was too heavy. Most of the things in their bags were soaked, including their change of clothes.

Shen Yiqiong was even worse off. He forgot to wrap his phone in a plastic bag. When he took it out of his pocket, he ended up shaking out quite a bit of water. Naturally, it wouldn’t turn on.

“I’ll contact someone to pick us up,” Xu Jian said. “Going down the mountain like this is too slow.”

Those two thieves had been following them quietly. Now, they were planning to slip away. Before Zhou Jiayu could speak, Little Paper started rolling up his sleeves again, scaring them into stopping immediately.

“M-Master.” The man was about to cry. “We really just wanted to pick up some junk.”

“A memorial tablet is also considered junk?” Zhou Jiayu asked.

The man had nothing to say, and finally could only utter: “Didn’t I put it back…”

Zhou Jiayu said: “You thought you could leave without returning it? Go spend two days at the police station first.”

The two hung their heads in dismay, but looking at Little Paper, they didn’t dare to voice any objections.

Little Paper snorted and was about to spit, but Zhou Jiayu hurried to educate him, telling him not to do this action as it wasn’t a habit a good child should have.

Little Paper showed an aggrieved expression and shot a glance at Shen Yiqiong.

Shen Yiqiong looked down at his nose, and his nose down at his heart, pretending not to see anything, and continued studying that waterlogged phone.

Zhou Jiayu was both angry and amused watching this. He reached out and smacked Shen Yiqiong on the head: “Look at what you taught him!”

Shen Yiqiong said: “I didn’t, I haven’t…”

Zhou Jiayu said: “Say you haven’t one more time?”

Shen Yiqiong finally resigned to his fate, saying with a mournful face that he had only done it once or twice; who knew Little Paper would learn it.

In the end, Zhou Jiayu threatened him that if he taught Little Paper any more messy habits, he would have to live on plain noodles for the rest of his life. Shen Yiqiong obediently agreed.

When leaving the Meng family ruins, Zhou Jiayu glanced back again. He saw the towering mountain peaks and the mountain hollow that had been flattened. A magical premonition sprouted in his heart—they would return here.

__

Author’s Note:

Zhou Jiayu worries all day whether Shen Yiqiong has passed any bad habits onto Little Paper, until one day, he sees Little Paper and immediately roars at Shen Yiqiong: Shen Yiqiong—what did you do to Little Paper—

Shen Yiqiong: Wah, it really wasn’t me who passed my dark color onto Little Paper, he jumped into the ink himself!!